Prepare your shopping bags: Black Friday 2024 is upon us, and this year it’s going to be bigger than ever! In the past few years, it’s become abundantly clear that businesses cannot rely solely on single-channel sales (be it eCommerce or retail), and need to implement additional strategies. Doing so definitely pays off – literally. In 2023, Black Friday was the most popular day for shopping in the U.S., with 76.2 million shoppers visiting retail stores in person, and 90.6 million people shopping online.
There are two lessons to learn from this. First, companies have to stand on multiple legs, focusing simultaneously on offline and online retail. Second, businesses need to be on top of their game and create a specific Black Friday loyalty strategy. A next-gen loyalty program might just be the solution you are looking for.
Unless, of course, you’re still struggling with outdated, lagging tech, and not enough modern features to fulfill your loyalty dream. Make sure to download our super handy Replatforming Playbook and open a world of possibilities!
What Should You Expect From Black Friday 2024?
Despite more people venturing into brick-and-mortar locations, the trend of buying online and through mobile will continue during Black Friday in 2024. After all: Convenience is king, as they say. This could be a blessing in disguise, though, because online shopping, subscriptions, and delivery services – such as Amazon, Uber Eats, or Grab – have conquered the market, opening the door for new, previously somewhat ignored product categories to be delivered straight to customers.
20 years ago, it was unfathomable to wait for Black Friday sales to stock up on your favorite snacks and shampoo; now these items enjoy just as much attention as wireless headphones and tablets, bringing an ever-wider pool of opportunities for companies to cleverly strategize on.
Another familiar, yet noteworthy trend is personalization. However, in 2024, businesses have to look beyond well-phrased email messages and relevant product recommendations. They need to start thinking about one-of-a-kind experiences in order to drive word-of-mouth promotion and emotional loyalty as well. Such activities could include in-store live-streaming events, community gatherings, or stylist appointments with an influencer.
Share of Consumers Planning to Shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day in Canada From 2020 to 2023
Arm Yourself With a Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are excellent customer retention tools that help you influence customer behavior and drive any business goal you want. Launching one takes time, though, which is why you should start working on your concept well before Black Friday.
A loyalty program can boost your Black Friday marketing strategy in multiple ways, through limited-time promotions, in-person events, gamified challenges, member perks like early access, or a motivational reward distribution. Utilizing these tools, you can incentivize customers to make an initial purchase (or extra purchases) in order to redeem highly desired benefits.
Another driving factor is the rewards. Move beyond coupons: shoppers want something meaningful or experiential, like tickets to a runway show, branded merchandise, or a hard-to-come-by reservation for dinner at a top restaurant (which is where third-party partners come in handy).
Naturally, such high-end rewards require customers to spend a lot of loyalty points, so only the most committed customers will be able to redeem them. But that’s the beauty of it: exclusive rewards motivate customers to increase their purchase frequency and basket value, meaning they’ll stay with you far beyond Black Friday.
Engage for the long term: Black Friday purchases lay the foundation, but to keep customers around, make sure you highlight incentives early in your email campaign. Curate special gift categories and use gamified profiling to get customer data early. Then, use that data to surprise customers with super-relevant offers and experiential rewards.
Not Just Any Loyalty Program, but a Loyalty Program Planned With an AI Agent!
Incorporating both tried-and-true best practices, and innovative solutions can feel overwhelming. Occasionally you might even feel stuck, or uninspired. This is exactly why Antavo – as an AI-powered Loyalty Platform – launched Timi AI, as a major feature of our one-of-a-kind Loyalty Planner. The Planner helps centralize and visualize the process of launching a loyalty program and enables you to drastically shorten project timelines. Timi AI is our AI agent based on the company’s senior business analyst, Timi Garai.
As a feature of the Loyalty Planner, she will operate like a brand-new team member with a wealth of knowledge about loyalty programs. She can guide you through the planning process, help you optimize your ideas, put together workflows, and provide explanations whenever you need them.
The Best Black Friday Loyalty Program Strategies for 2024
1. Make sure your program is visible
This might feel like strange strategic advice, but it’s probably the most essential of them all. During Black Friday, there will be a multitude of first-time shoppers, and non-loyalty members in your stores or on your website. Make sure to bring your loyalty proposition into focus, highlight rewards and benefits, emphasize ease of access, and educate your employees about the program, so they’ll be able to provide sufficient help to customers inquiring about the program.
On the other hand, don’t bite the hand that feeds you – in other words, don’t forget about your already existing loyalty program members! Make sure to refresh their memory about the program, send out fresh updates and notifications, utilize the loyalty data you have, and make sure you’re targeting the right segments with the right messages. You can also introduce tier-specific, or VIP Black Friday offers. More on these in our upcoming segments!
2. Limited-time free delivery is a go-to incentive
Free shipping has always been high on most loyalty program members’ wishlists. However, this incentive is a must-have for Black Friday. Free delivery means that customers don’t need to endure the crowds — and packages arrive at their doorstep without any extra charges. That’s a major time- and cost-saver!
It’s a versatile Black Friday concept that works across many different industries, whether it’s a food delivery service or a retail loyalty program. Making free shipping a fully accessible benefit to all members (even brand-new ones) will help you boost acquisition significantly. And don’t worry – you can make it a time-limited benefit that is only available during your Black Friday sales event.
Alternatively, if you don’t love the idea of giving away such a premium loyalty reward — even temporarily — you can offer standard free shipping for regular members while reserving premium, next-day free shipping for top-tier members. This way you won’t devalue your top spenders’ privileges.
3. Early access is full of potential
When it comes to loyalty program rewards, there’s one opportunity that many companies overlook: early access. It’s essentially free on your end, as you only need a loyalty platform that allows you to set up access to certain products or sales based on customer segments. Yet, it’s a perk that customers go crazy for.
Offering early sale access as a Black Friday loyalty program feature puts you one step ahead of the competition. Customers will use this opportunity to order their favorite products days before the rush begins. And since they will finish their shopping before Black Friday, they won’t be swayed by your competitors’ offers.
Early access as a loyalty program benefit works best if you have tiers: you can reserve it for Silver- or Gold-tier members, which motivates freshly enrolled customers to increase their purchase volume and enter the top tiers. (Not to mention, the privilege of early access is quite thrilling!)
4. Engage customers outside of the buying cycle
If you are looking to give customers a more relevant loyalty program experience and foster emotional loyalty (which remains long after your Black Friday sale is over), rewarding non-transactional activities is the way to go.
The point here is to allow customers to earn points and rewards for referring friends, writing product reviews, answering survey questions, bringing back old clothes to the store for recycling, and so on. Doing so keeps members engaged with the loyalty program, builds trust and appreciation, and helps them stock up on points before the next Black Friday sales period.
As a seller of mountaineering products, Bergzeit takes this concept to the absolute next level. Taking full advantage of Antavo’s activity-tracking app integrations, the award-winning Bergzeit Club program empowers loyalty members to earn points for what they love: being active.
Can’t Make It in Time for Black Friday 2024? Get a Headstart for 2025 With Antavo’s Technology!
The launch of a loyalty program shouldn’t be rushed, as it usually takes months to implement the whole system. If you’re reading this article a bit late, don’t worry. Look at it this way: the glass is half-full — you have more than enough time to prepare for Black Friday 2025.
One more piece of great news? Timi AI can help you plan or rethink your loyalty concept. A major player in our Loyalty Planner, Timi can offer you help in multiple ways: whether it’s answering every single loyalty-related question, helping you plan out workflows, providing examples, or simply acting as a guiding light through the whole process. To see Timi in action, take a look at our Keynote event, or check out our dedicated page featuring Timi AI.
Ready to hear more? Get in touch with our experts: Book a demo or send us your loyalty program RFP.
Make sure to also check out our Replatforming Playbook and don’t miss the opportunity to take your loyalty program to the next level!
Zsuzsanna is a Loyalty Specialist with years of experience in digital marketing and e-commerce. Zsuzsanna is known for having an analytic approach and high-level communication skills, helping her deliver engaging content. In her free time, she enjoys watching Formula 1 and listening to endless Taylor Swift playlists.
